Good-natured and garrulous, Švejk becomes the Austro-Hungarian army's most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of the First World War - although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards, getting drunk and becoming a general nuisance, the resourceful Švejk uses all his natural cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the doctors, police, clergy and officers who chivvy him towards battle. The story of a 'little man' caught in a vast bureaucratic machine, The Good Soldier Švejk combines dazzling wordplay and piercing satire to create a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war. Cecil Parrott's vibrant, unabridged and unbowdlerized translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing Hašek's turbulent life as an anarchist, communist and vagranty, and the Everyman character of Švejk. This edition also includes a guide to Czech names, maps and original illustrations by Josef Ladas.

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Reviews:

Graven Images

Had to go to Amazon for this - couldn't find it in a bookstore. Classic Eastern European dry wit and ironic fatalism . . . the perfect attitude for an unenthusiastic soldier marching off to a war he doesn't understand, doesn't care to be involved in, and has nothing to gain by participating - except maybe a marble headstone with his name on it, if even that. If you appreciate Eastern European "dark humor" in the vein of Kundera, Wolfe, Gogol, or Bulgakov, you'll love this work. The same can be said for Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five," Joseph Heller's "Catch-22," or Mark Twain's hilarious short story "A History of a Campaign that Failed" . . . appreciate the ironic, "dark humor" of these works, get "The Good Soldier Svejk." Highly recommended by this ex-professor of English and lover of sarcastic, raucous, and irreverent literature.

A must-read, once perhaps, for any serious military historian or historian of early 20th Century Europe. Hasek's writing style is varied, depending on circumstances (and sobriety), which can make the book a challenge to read sometimes but that's part of the story too. At times absurdly hilarious and often scandalous in its treatment of the royalty, this book was banned throughout much of Europe in the 1930s. While not as powerfully simple as "All Quiet on the Western Front," this book carries a strong message about the waste and folly of military campaigns of the day. I enjoyed reading this book and I passed it along to another historian because, as good as it was, I doubted I'd reread it anytime soon.